Vehicles with electrical systems are equipped with fuse blocks for safety. Such system are not normally equipped with any mechanism for protecting electrical devices not included in the electrical system design. Historically, such devices have been attached through the cigaret lighter accessory, leaving wire trailing on or handing from various retrofitted appliances. These appliances include such things as battery chargers for cellular telephones, fans, radar detectors, power supplies, CB radios, etc.
A variety of mechanisms for adding fuses have been proposed to get away from the trailing wire problem as indicated by the following summarized patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,821,695 issued to L. J. Scholer teaches a means of adding a circuit to an existing cartridge-fused circuit by adding a connector that snaps over the divergent ends of the fuse holder arms. By adding an additional parallel circuit, the electrical load can be increased without additional fuse protection.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,884 issued to M. L. Morlan teaches a means of adding a circuit to an existing cartridge-fused circuit by providing a clip comprising a split cylinder which fits between one end of a cartridge fuse and its holder and which contains a male terminal extending at right angles to the split cylinder.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,291 issued to R. J. Peterson, Jr. teaches a means of adding one or more circuits to a cartridge-fused circuit by adding an adapter terminal at each end of a cartridge fuse block.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,391,485 issued to A. Urano teaches an in-line fuse holder adapted to accept blade fuses, but does not provide additional circuits.
The plug-in fuse block extension of the present invention requires no addition to or modification of the existing fuse block while allowing the addition of one or more additional parallel fuse-protected circuits. The extension need not be removed in order to remove the added fuse or fuses. Further, it is inexpensive and of minimal size. Finally, it allows the installer to place almost all, if not all, of the wiring behind the vehicle instrument panel sot hat it will not get in the way of or be damaged by the occupants.